Wednesday December 16, 2009 Source:Speakeasy PR Location: Los Angeles
Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle) returns to the road this spring, bringing his latest incarnation, the shape-shifting Puscifer, to cities throughout Eastern North America for an all encompassing evening of entertainment that Spin Magazine described as an “X-rated episode of Hee-Haw,” the Las Vegas Review Journal dubbed as “a performance art spectacle” and the Salt Lake Tribune said the event “...challenged our preconceptions of what to expect from a rock show.”
“Efforts to confine our beloved enigma to the Southwestern United States have been thwarted.” said Keenan. “We are compelled beyond all reason to bring the noise Eastward and share our special sauce. Although authorities suggest you be prepared for any and all possibilities, we simply suggest you arrive happy and hungry.”
Cities with two performances will feature two entirely different evenings of music, comedy and performances.
March 2 Atlanta, GA CW Center Stage
March 3 Atlanta, GA CW Center Stage
March 5 Washington, DC Lincoln Center
March 6 Washington, DC Lincoln Center
March 8 Philadelphia, PA Theater of Living Arts
March 9 Philadelphia, PA Theater of Living Arts
March 11 New York, NY Grand Ballroom
March 13 New York, NY Apollo Theater
March 15 Boston, MA Berklee Academy of Music
March 16 Boston, MA Berklee Academy of Music
March 19 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth Theater
March 20 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth Theater
March 21 Lorain, OH Lorain Theater
March 23 Detroit, MI Royal Oak Theater
March 24 Detroit, MI Royal Oak Theater
March 26 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
March 27 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
March 29 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
March 30 St. Louis, MO Roberts Orpheum Theater
March 31 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
April 2 Minneapolis, MN Pantages Theater
April 3 Minneapolis, MN Pantages Theater
While the concept for Puscifer came to Keenan in 1995, it wasn’t until 2007 that the collective released their debut album, V is for V*****, which was followed by a remix album fittingly titled V is for V*****. Valentine’s Day 2009 saw the live debut of the outfit, as the group of musicians and comedians hosted a trio of performances at The Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort in sin-city itself, Las Vegas. A Fall 2009 tour wrapped up in early December with the group performing eighteen shows in eleven cities. Puscifer’s recently released a six-song EP titled C is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference HERE) EP.
Puscifer features a rotating cast of players involved in the recordings, which includes the aforementioned Keenan as well as Mat Mitchell, Tim Alexander, Jonny Polonsky, Matt McJunkins, Jeff Friedl, Carina Round, Lustmord, God, Laura Milligan, Milla Jovovich Gil & Rani Sharone, Danny Lohner, Josh Eustis, and Juliette Commagere.
On sale dates will begin in early 2010 and vary by city, please visit Puscifer.com for full details.
New York, NY…August 13, 2009…Les Paul, acclaimed guitar player, entertainer and inventor, passed away from complications of severe pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plain, New York, surrounded by family and loved ones. He had been receiving the best available treatment through this final battle and in keeping with his persona, he showed incredible strength, tenacity and courage. The family would like to express their heartfelt thanks for the thoughts and prayers from his dear friends and fans. Les Paul was 94.
One of the foremost influences on 20th century sound and responsible for the world’s most famous guitar, the Les Paul model, Les Paul’s prestigious career in music and invention spans from the 1930s to the present. Though he’s indisputably one of America’s most popular, influential, and accomplished electric guitarists, Les Paul is best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid body guitar. His groundbreaking design would become the template for Gibson’s best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, introduced in 1952. Today, countless musical legends still consider Paul’s iconic guitar unmatched in sound and prowess. Among Paul’s most enduring contributions are those in the technological realm, including ingenious developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects, and the mechanics of sound in general.
Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Les Paul was already performing publicly as a honky-tonk guitarist by the age of 13. So clear was his calling that Paul dropped out of high school at 17 to play in Sunny Joe Wolverton’s Radio Band in St. Louis. As Paul’s mentor, Wolverton was the one to christen him with the stage name “Rhubarb Red,” a moniker that would follow him to Chicago in 1934. There, Paul became a bonafide radio star, known as both hillbilly picker Rhubarb Red and Django Reinhardt-informed jazz guitarist Les Paul. His first recordings were done in 1936 on an acoustic—alone as Rhubarb Red, as well as backing blues singer Georgia White. The next year he formed his first trio, but by 1938 he’d moved to New York to begin his tenure on national radio with one of the more popular dance orchestras in the country, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.
Tinkering with electronics and guitar amplification since his youth, Les Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late ’30s. Unhappy with the first generation of commercially available hollowbodies because of their thin tone, lack of sustain, and feedback problems, Paul opted to build an entirely new structure. “I was interested in proving that a vibration-free top was the way to go,” he has said. “I even built a guitar out of a railroad rail to prove it. What I wanted was to amplify pure string vibration, without the resonance of the wood getting involved in the sound.” With the good graces of Epiphone president Epi Stathopoulo, Paul used the Epiphone plant and machinery in 1941 to bring his vision to fruition. He affectionately dubbed the guitar “The Log.”
Les Paul’s tireless experiments sometimes proved to be dangerous, and he nearly electrocuted himself in 1940 during a session in the cellar of his Queens apartment. During the next two years of rehabilitation, Les earned his living producing radio music. Forced to put the Pennsylvanians and the rest of his career on hold, Les Paul moved to Hollywood. During World War II, he was drafted into the Army but permitted to stay in California, where he became a regular player for Armed Forces Radio Service. By 1943 he had assembled a trio that regularly performed live, on the radio, and on V-Discs. In 1944 he entered the jazz spotlight—thanks to his dazzling work filling in for Oscar Moore alongside Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, and other superstars —at the first of the prestigious Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts.
By his mid-thirties, Paul had successfully combined Reinhardt-inspired jazz playing and the western swing and twang of his Rhubarb Red persona into one distinctive, electrifying style. In the Les Paul Trio he translated the dizzying runs and unusual harmonies found on Jazz at the Philharmonic into a slower, subtler, more commercial approach. His novelty instrumentals were tighter, brasher, and punctuated with effects. Overall, the trademark Les Paul sound was razor-sharp, clean-shaven, and divinely smooth.
As small combos eclipsed big bands toward the end of World War II, Les Paul Trio’s popularity grew. They cut records for Decca both alone and behind the likes of Helen Forrest, the Andrews Sisters, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Dick Hayes, and, most notably, Bing Crosby. Since 1945, when the crooner brought them into the studio to back him on a few numbers, the Trio had become regular guests on Crosby’s hit radio show. The highlight of the session was Paul’s first No. 1 hit and million-seller, the gorgeous “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.”
Meanwhile, Paul began to experiment with dubbing live tracks over recorded tracks, also altering the playback speed. This resulted in “Lover (When You’re Near Me),” his revolutionary 1947 predecessor to multi-track recording. The hit instrumental featured Les Paul on eight different electric guitar parts, all playing together. In 1948, Paul nearly lost his life to a devastating car crash that shattered his right arm and elbow. Still, he convinced doctors to set his broken arm in the guitar-picking and cradling position. Laid up but undaunted, Paul acquired a first generation Ampex tape recorder from Crosby in 1949, and began his most important multi-tracking adventure, adding a fourth head to the recorder to create sound-on-sound recordings. While tinkering with the machine and its many possibilities, he also came up with tape delay. These tricks, along with another recent Les Paul innovation—close mic-ing vocals—were integrated for the first time on a single recording: the 1950 No. 1 tour de force “How High the Moon.” This historic track was performed during a duo with future wife Mary Ford. The couple’s prolific string of hits for Capitol Records not only included some of the most popular recordings of the early 1950s, but also wrote the book on contemporary studio production. The dense but crystal clear harmonic layering of guitars and vocals, along with Ford’s close mic-ed voice and Paul’s guitar effects, produced distinctively contemporary recordings with unprecedented sonic qualities. Through hits, tours, and popular radio shows, Paul and Ford kept one foot in the technological vanguard and the other in the cultural mainstream.
All the while, Les Paul continued to pine for the perfect guitar. Though The Log came close, it wasn’t quite what he was after. In the early 1950s, Gibson Guitar would cultivate a partnership with Paul that would lead to the creation of the guitar he’d seen only in his dreams. In 1948, Gibson elected to design its first solidbody, and Paul, a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool Gibson man,” seemed the right man for the job. Gibson avidly courted the guitar legend, even driving deep into the Pennsylvania mountains to deliver the first model to newlyweds Les Paul and Mary Ford.
“Les played it, and his eyes lighted up,” then-Gibson President Ted McCarty has recalled. The year was 1950, and Paul had just signed on as the namesake of Gibson’s first electric solidbody, with exclusive design privileges. Working closely with Paul, Gibson forged a relationship that would change popular culture forever. The Gibson Les Paul model—the most powerful and respected electric guitar in history—began with the 1952 release of the Les Paul Goldtop. After introducing the original Les Paul Goldtop in 1952, Gibson issued the Black Beauty, the mahogany-topped Les Paul Custom, in 1954. The Les Paul Junior (1954) and Special (1955) were also introduced before the canonical Les Paul Standard hit the market in 1958. With revolutionary humbucker pickups, this sunburst classic has remained unchanged for the half-century since it hit the market.
“The world has lost a truly innovative and exceptional human being today. I cannot imagine life without Les Paul. He would walk into a room and put a smile on anyone’s face. His musical charm was extraordinary and his techniques unmatched anywhere in the world,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. “We will dedicate ourselves to preserving Les’ legacy to insure that it lives on forever. He touched so many lives throughout his remarkable life and his influence extends around the globe and across every boundary. I have lost a dear, personal friend and mentor, a man who has changed so many of our lives for the better.”
“I don’t think any words can describe the man we know as Les Paul adequately. The English language does not contain words that can pay enough homage to someone like Les. As the “Father of the Electric Guitar”, he was not only one of the world’s greatest innovators but a legend who created, inspired and contributed to the success of musicians around the world,” said Dave Berryman, President of Gibson Guitar. “I have had the privilege to know and work with Les for many, many years and his passing has left a deep personal void. He was simply put – remarkable in every way. As a person, a musician, a friend, an inventor. He will be sorely missed by us all,”
With the rise of the rock ’n’ roll revolution of 1955, Les Paul and Mary Ford’s popularity began to wane with younger listeners, though Paul would prove to be a massive influence on younger generation of guitarists. Still, Paul and Ford maintained their iconic presence with their wildly popular television show, which ran from 1953-1960. In 1964, the couple, parents to a son and daughter, divorced. Paul began playing in Japan, and recorded an LP for London Records before poor health forced him to take time off—as much as someone so inspired can take time off.
In the 1977, Paul resurfaced with a Grammy-winning Chet Atkins collaboration, Chester and Lester. Then the ailing guitarist, who’d already suffered arthritis and permanent hearing loss, had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery.
Ever stubborn, Les recovered, and returned to live performance in the late 1980s. Even releasing the 2005 double-Grammy winner Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played, featuring collaborations with a veritable who’s who of the electric guitar, including dozens of illustrious fans like Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Joe Perry. In 2008, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life which culminated with a live performance by Les himself. Until recently Les continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at The Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, for over twelve years where a literal who’s who of the entertainment world has paid homage. It has been an honor to have Les Paul perform at The Iridium Jazz Club for the past twelve years hosting such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and others and is a tragic loss to owner Ron Sturm both personally and professionally. Iridium intends to celebrate Les Paul’s music and legacy every Monday night.
Les Paul has since become the only individual to share membership into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Les is survived by his three sons Lester (Rus) G. Paul, Gene W. Paul and Robert (Bobby) R. Paul, his daughter Colleen Wess, son-in-law Gary Wess, long time friend Arlene Palmer, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A private Funeral service will be held in New York. A service in Waukesha, WI will be announced at a later date. Details will follow and will be announced for all services. Memorial tributes for the public will be announced at a future date. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10001.
Monday December 8, 2008 Source:The Palms Location: Las Vegas, NV
LAS VEGAS –- Maynard James Keenan, known as the eccentric and unpredictable singer of two of modern rock’s most successful bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle, will unveil the live incarnation of Puscifer on Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 at The Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort at 8:00 p.m.
In 2007, Keenan created Puscifer, a multifaceted, multimedia, multi-artist, and multi-personality project self-described as “a physical manifestation of the party that goes on in my head 24/7.” The collective’s debut, V is for Vagina, was followed by a remix album (V is for Vagina) as well as several singles and videos featuring the curvaceous Queen B. A rotating cast of players involved in the recordings include Mat Mitchell, Tim Alexander, Jonny Polonsky, Danny Lohner, Gil and Rani Sharone, Lustmord, Laura Milligan, Milla Jovovich, Lisa Germano, and Alan Moulder.
“Expect a loosely organized bucket of Romper Room chaos sprinkled with Dry Wit and Brown Note Booty Bumping Sub Bins. And perhaps some snacks.” said Keenan.
Presented by Andrew Hewitt and Live Nation, tickets for Puscifer are $39.00, plus any additional service fees. Tickets go on-sale Saturday, Dec. 13 at Noon. Please visit any Ticketmaster location, call 702-474-4000, visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.livenation.com to purchase tickets. The Pearl Box Office is open from Noon – 7 pm daily. Doors will open at 7:00 pm and show time is 8:00 pm. The Pearl is home to Miller Lite Live, presented by Cricket Wireless; for more information on upcoming concerts, please call 702-942-6888.
About The Pearl:
The Pearl is Las Vegas’ premier concert theater boasting accommodations for up to 2,500 ticket holders. Featuring a stage just four feet from the floor and the farthest seating area being a mere 120 feet from the stage, The Pearl offers the utmost in intimate viewing of your favorite acts. Private and semi-private skyboxes are located on each side of the venue offering private bars, lounges and restrooms. The Pearl is a marvel of modern technology using only top quality sound and video equipment throughout. Hard wired to The Studio at The Palms, The Pearl allows artists to create a cost-effective live album with efficiency and without additional venue set-up. For more information, please visit www.palms.com.
Wednesday August 20, 2008 Source:Blabbermouth Location: East Troy, Wisconsin
According to the Walworth County Sunday, the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department wrote 24 citations at Saturday’s (August 16) Projekt Revolution tour concert at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin.
The show was the theater’s last of the season.
The show’s main acts were LINKIN PARK and CHRIS CORNELL, former lead singer of SOUNDGARDEN and AUDIOSLAVE.
The citations included 18 for underage drinking, two for disorderly conduct and one each for battery, possession of fireworks, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The fifth edition of the Projekt Revolution tour got underway on July 16 in Boston. The festival-type trek also features THE BRAVERY, ATREYU, 10 YEARS, ASHES DIVIDE, HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, ARMOR FOR SLEEP and STREET DRUM CORPS.
As with previous LINKIN PARK tours, one dollar from each ticket sold is going to the group’s charity foundation, Music For Relief, to support disaster relief and reduce global warming.
Thursday July 17, 2008 Source:Blabbermouth Location: Dallas
Videobob of Big Vin Records, the label headed up by former PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, has issued the following update:
“Big Vin Records is setting up shop on eBay to bring the fans what they want and offer up some old-school shit that Vinnie has stuffed in storage. We will be offering up a lot of awesome PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN and HELLYEAH stuff, not to mention a few items out of Vinnie’s personal stash. To kick things off we are offering Vinnie’s personal oven out of his kitchen. Anyone who knows anything about the Big Vin knows he loves to cook! This oven has served up meals for all the best rock stars!! Well, Vince’s dad bought him a newer fancier model for Christmas so this one needs to go!!!! It is on eBay with NO RESERVE here. If you win, Vinnie will personalize and autograph it just to you. The oven must be picked up in Arlington, Texas, NO SHIPPING.”
Watch Video footage of Vinnie Paul announcing the auction
